We either stand and fight the Rottings as they come or hope Stide’s plan works. I’m about to go for the latter when I’m beaten to it.
‘Do as she says!’ Thessa yells out from where she remains upon a horse, battling to keep it from bolting.
‘I’m coming!’ Benny calls out as he races in the direction Stide has pointed. ‘The rest of you stay here. Deal with the others.’
‘You follow me. Not one step off,’ Stide insists, and she disappears between the trees, leading Benny and several of the Rottings out of sight.
‘Protect Loch!’ Benny calls back to me, although Caz has already taken up that role, though she struggles to keep the blade from trembling in her grasp. She’s Morathkian – Eastern Isles born and raised with a blade in hand – and though she has long since relinquished weapons for quills, books, and her library, it doesn’t stop her now.
I stand shoulder to shoulder with her, protecting her and the frailest of our group.
‘Get the fuck off me!’ Ruben screams to my left, fire darting from his hands as a Rotting tackles him from his saddle. The smell of charred flesh mars the air as Ruben slams into the ground. He’s not even able to right himself before another shape looms over him.
‘Fuck off!’ he screams again, the fear rising in his voice.
‘Just keep going!’ I yell at Caz, twisting around and breaking our meagre line as I race to Ruben. But Kyor beats me to it.
Unlike me, he’s remained mounted, and the sight of him and Elska is more than a little formidable. In one leap, the pair sweep through the air, Kyor’s sword swinging with expert precision as it whistles through the first Rotting in a clean, vicious arc, severing its head before rising up and doing the same to the second, and sending a bolt of lightning through its body, just for good measure.
‘Thanks,’ Ruben heaves as Kyor pulls him upright without a word before he peels away again, ready to face the next threat.
Fear trembles through me, but I refuse to let it take hold. It’s just another fight. And they’re just another type of monster. No different from the murderous Rettlings and the huge jötnar and more besides.
I beat them when I wasn’t bonded. Now … now I’m damned if I’m going to let these half-dead beasts scratch or hurt a single one of my friends.
The cacophonous caw of crows rises, but I block it out, focussing on the foes before me.
With my sword firm in my grasp, I spin around, trying to work outwho to help first. Ruben is back on his feet, and Benny and Stide have returned.
‘We did everything we could,’ Benny says breathlessly. ‘The broken earth’ll slow them but …’
But they’re still coming. They’re the words he doesn’t say. There are still more coming.
And the cawing rises still. Fen is moving non-stop, tearing down one Rotting and then the next, throwing himself into the middle of the fray in a manner that makes my heart clench.
I push down the fear clawing up through me. The Myrkr is surely coming … Maybe we can flee before it reaches us.
Caz is struggling to keep Loch clear from the creatures, and Ruben is all but out of flames. I need to pick a front to fight with, I think, only for another thought to claim my mind. The Rottings are in the forest … and the forest ismydomain. I reach for my green magic, for that buzz around my ribs.
The effect is instant as the Rottings closest to us stumble and trip over vines that tangle their feet and legs.
‘I’ll hold them. You get them!’ I yell unnecessarily as swords cleave through the creatures one after another. But for all the ones that fall, more are still coming.
Intent on harnessing the same power I used only minutes before, I pull at my magic, ready to hold the next wave of Rottings in place, but nothing answers.
No, no, no!I scream the words in my head. Maybe it’s just taking a moment. Maybe it’s the exhaustion from freeing Fen that means my magic requires longer to summon. I try again, wishing with every fibre in my body that this is the reason for the emptiness within me. And yet I know in truth that it’s not.
My magic is gone. And there’s only one reason why that could be: the Myrkr has found us once again.
Chapter 50
The others have noticed too. The crows are screeching at us, and since Kyor saved Ruben from the Rottings, not a single bolt of lightning has crashed down from the sky. Not a single ball of fire has been hurled at the monsters.
Their magic’s gone too.
Rohan told Caz that only thirty men from an entire battalion survived the Myrkr he faced. The thought swims around in my head over and over. We’ve faced the Myrkr once already, and there’s no way we can get that lucky again and walk out of here unscathed.
Little Raven, I did not find you just to lose you now.Fen’s voice comes through my mind, and with it a spark of confusion arises. Our magic is muted, yes, but the bond between Fen and me somehow remains.
